Buenos Aires Community Plans to Rebuild on Site of Bombing

Six months after a terrorist attack struck the heart of the Jewish community here, Argentina’s largest Jewish communal organization is planning to rebuild its offices in the near future.

Alberto Crupnicoff, the president of the Argentine Jewish Mutual Association (AMIA), said in a statement issued last Friday that the organization is planning to construct its new headquarters at the site of the building razed in last July’s bombing attack.

Nearly 99 people were killed in that attack, which left more than 200 wounded.

The association said the new community center would be set back some 50 feet from the street to avoid a second attack. AMIA will lay the cornerstone as soon as the Buenos Aires municipal government grants the zoning papers necessary to begin construction, the organization said. Crupnicoff predicted that AMIA’s new building would open its doors in just over a year. He estimated the project’s construction costs at roughly $3 million.

Since the attack AMIA has been operating out of temporary offices located several blocks away from its former headquarters.

Fearing another terrorist attack, shopkeepers near the devastated headquarters have reportedly stated that they will move if AMIA attempts to rebuild there.

Security at all Jewish locations in Buenos Aires has been stepped up in the wake of last year’s bombing. Concrete barricades were erected at entrances to synagogues, Jewish schools and clubs, and police maintain a 24-hour presence at all Jewish sites.